Mountain Energei

Lyrics

Mr Blairstowe and Mr Partridge (2)
They said to me
To get a mortgage
You need an income lid;
I thought it was free(3)

Dolly Parton and Lord Byron
They said patriotism is the last refuge
But now its me (4)

And water's flowing down the mountain
But a tree is blocking the water flowing

So I went fishing
A note from a fish said:
"Dear dope, if you wanna catch us
You need a rod and a line
Signed, the fish." (5)

Water is flowing down the mountain
But a tree is blocking the water flowing

Went to the car rental
They said to me
You need a log book and licence, son (6)

Water's flowing down the mountain
But a tree is blocking the water coming
Mountain energei

And water's flowing down the mountain

Notes

1. The word, as sung, is clearly "energy." "Energei," as far as I can discover, is not a word in any language; there is an Italian "Gruppo Energei," where the word is apparently a combination of "energia" and G.E.I., an acronym for a company name (however I haven't found any information about this in English so the details remain obscure). TamFG submitted an excellent comment about the word:

"With regards to note (1), it's probably worth pointing out that the German word for 'energy' ('Energie') is very nearly 'energei,' having only the last two letters exchanged. This would of course change the pronunciation of the German word entirely, but given Mark E. Smith's well documented fondness for bastardised German ("Bremen Nacht," "Reformation!" and "Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain" being prime examples), there must be at least an outside chance that we have a similar situation here, even if there's nothing in the actual sung lyrics to suggest this."

The song is built around a Gary Glitter-style riff (see also "New Big Prinz" and "Glam-Racket"). However, the music was written by drummer Dave Milner, and in its original incarnation (an engaging recording in its own right) it doesn't have the Gary Glitter feel to it yet.

Rema999 captures a theme of the song in a very pithy remark: "I always thought the song is about repressed or inexpressed potential, on how society’s rules and mundane tasks can cripple or obstacle the free flowing of ideas."

Blairstone and Mr. Partridge...is that Blair? Is that a political song?

No, not really. It's an objective song. Started off with, mmm, seeing Britain, and I think you have it here [in the US], as well....you get it on TV, y'know, "you can have endless credit" and all that. (Pause) Where I live, and I'm sure everywhere, there's people who actually believe it, y'know. But also...for instance, in Manchester, you probably get that here as well, "Water was always free" where I live, y'know. [Did MES do that thing with his hands? Or did the interviewer think it was a banal statement, and tried to rescue it by putting it in quotes? There's no telling.]

So that's just metaphorical? It's not directly political?

It turns into a political song in America. [...] Yeah, I just think of it like, uh, your average fellow approaching...

3. From the titanic 2006-08-11 rendition in Oslo, "How many techinicians/Does it need [sic]/To set up a mic stand/I thought it was three."
The idea in the previous lines seems to me just to be "You need an income"; I don't know what "income lid" is. Charlie Hughes suggests MES is using Liverpool slang for "friend" or "mate"; the question then becomes whether MES would use "lid" in this sense. It's hard to endorse the idea, but I can't reject it either, and it does make sense of the lyric in just the way it seems to want to be made sense of...

4. They must have been quoting Samuel Johnson, who famously said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Bob Dylan also (slightly mis-) quoted this line in "Sweetheart Like You": "They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings/steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king." The original Country On The Click version runs: "Lord Byron and Parton/They used to say/A scoundrel is patriotic/Now it's me they're blaming."

Dan: "In November 2003 Parton released For God and Country, an album of religious/nationalistic songs, apparently written in the wake of the plane attacks on New York and elsewhere in September 2001; maybe there was some comment by her in the press that year."

It is just possible, Dan points out, that MES is conflating Dolly Parton with Emmylou Harris, who said "Patriotism can be good or bad. Knee-jerk patriotism can be very bad. I'm patriotic almost to the point of self-consciousness, but I love my country the way I love a friend or a child who I would correct if she was going the wrong way" ("What I've Learned," Esquire, June 2004).

And he found the following quote from Lord Byron, in an 1823 letter: "Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen."

5. In Warner Brothers' 1950 cartoon, "A Fractured Leghorn," a cat is fishing with no bait. The fish attach a note to his hook which reads: "Dear Dope--You can't catch us Fish without a Worm on the hook. signed, The Fish."

6. Sark/Smirk contends that the line is "...a license SORN." In England, a SORN, or statutory off-road notification, may be obtained if one has a vehicle that is kept off public roads, in which case one does not have to obtain insurance or pay tax on the vehicle. It seems unlikely that one would get one of these for a rental vehicle, though, and it sounds like "son" to me...

More Information

Comments (48)

"But now it's me"..... could be MES bemoaning the way in which everyone seems ( by 2003) to name-drop The Fall and claim inspiration from etc

2.Mike | 01/09/2013

I'd always assumed that 'Mr. Blairstowe' was a reference to Tony Blair, the Uk's Prime Minister at the time of the song. Mr. Partridge could be John Prescott the deputy PM?

3.dannyno | 22/03/2014

"You need an income, lad"

Income LID, I think?

4.bzfgt | 08/04/2014

It is "lid", I thought I changed that back a long time ago. I was hoping for something that made more sense than "lid" seemed to make, there, but live versions remove any doubt.

5.bzfgt | 08/04/2014

Maybe a subprime mortgage?

6.Mark | 22/05/2014

In the original version, the line is "But now its me they're after"...

7.bzfgt | 22/05/2014

I am listening right now to COTC, and it has "blaming," just as I had it in the note. Is there a third studio version? Or are you quoting from memory?

8.Mark | 22/05/2014

Mea culpa. Twas from memory, which is therefore incorrect. I'm 95% sure that I've heard the line as reported somewhere... a live version, perhaps?

9.Keynote | 15/07/2014

Mr. Partridge could be Andy Partridge from the band XTC (also in relation to Dolly Parton and Lord Byron as musicians) Don't know who Blairstowe could be though...

10.Anonymous | 17/12/2014

I saw a discussion about this song once, where someone mentioned that in order to get a special type of mortgage, directed at people with low income, you'd need to not make more than a certain amount of money per year. Which contradicts the "free market" economics implemented since the 80's.

11.dannyno | 20/12/2014

From the notorious Left of the Dial interview, published Winter 2004/5:
http://thefall.org/news/pics/05winter-lotd/index.html

"It's an objective song. Started off with, mmm, seeing Britain, and I think you have it here as well... You get it on the TV, y'know, "you can have endless credit" and all that. (Pause). Where I live, and I'm sure everywhere, there's people who actually believe it, y'know. But also... for instance, in Manchester, you probably get that here as well, "Water was always free" where I live, y'know."

So from that, I kind of get two things. One is that the perspective of the narrator in the song is not necessarily that of MES. And secondly, that credit is being treated metaphorically like water - plentiful and free.

Dan

12.Sark-Smirk | 09/01/2015

You need a log book and a licence SORN (statutory off-road notice). A play on words on registering a car to be temporarily off the road. Commonly displayed on licence forms.

(2) It's definitely Mr. Bledsoe, a good Northern name. Can't think of a famous one.... but there is a DR. Bledsoe as a flawed and duplicitous educator in Ralph Ellison's Invisible man' : "Dr. Bledsoe distorts and perverts the Founder's dream of lifting the veil of ignorance from his people. Rather than enlightening his students and providing them with an education that prepares them to contribute to society and function as educated adults in the real world, Bledsoe perpetuates the myth of white supremacy. Thus, pondering the statue of the Founder lifting the veil, the narrator suspects that Bledsoe is, in fact, lowering the veil and ensuring that his students remain in the dark. "
Mr Partridge would immediately suggest Steve Coogan's dumb but didactic TV presenter Alan Partridge, but that doesn't seem to have any bearing on this song...

as for the car rental... you would def. NOT need a log-book to rent a car, BUT if the car was a 'loaner' while your own car was being repaired, you'd likely need both the log-book (of your own disabled vehicle) and a note for the insurance Co proving it was 'off road'. Just saying...
But he's 100% saying 'Son'.

15.TamFG | 25/08/2015

With regards to note (1), it's probably worth pointing out that the German word for 'energy' ('energie') is very nearly 'energei' having only the last two letters exchanged. This would of course change the pronunciation of the German word entirely but given Mark E. Smith's well documented fondness for bastardised German ('Bremen Nacht', 'Reformation!' and 'Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain' being prime examples) there must be at least an outside chance that we have a similar situation here, even if there's nothing in the actual sung lyrics to suggest this.

16.Neale Bairstow | 11/09/2015

'Blairstowe' appears to me to be a play on 'Blair' and 'Bairstow' (no relation!) as in 'Bairstow Eves' estate agents. There is also a chain of estate agents called 'Partridge' - so all that fits neatly in with the theme of the lyrics.....

17.bzfgt | 15/11/2015

Neale, thank you, but what does all that mean? What's Blair then?

18.dannyno | 29/08/2016

From the notorious "Left of the Dial" interview:
http://thefall.org/news/pics/05winter-lotd/index.html

Q: ...Blairstone and Mr. Partridge ... is that Blair? Is that a political song?

MES: No, not really...

etc

You have to read the whole bit.

19.dannyno | 29/08/2016

Ha, I already quoted a bit of that interview! Doh!

20.bzfgt | 03/09/2016

In 2014! It went by me then, or something...if I'd been reading the comments here instead of in my email box, I'd have copied that comment instead of key entering all that....oh well.

21.dannyno | 15/03/2017

The Dolly Parton reference puzzles me, because as far as I know she has been an uncomplicated patriot - but in November 2003 she released "For God and Country", an album of religious/nationalistic songs, apparently written in the wake of the plane attacks on New York and elsewhere in September 2001. So maybe there was some comment by her in the press that year.

Sure, but it's not necessary--MES may have had the album, or seen it, or seen press about it.

23.Alan | 08/04/2017

A Fractured Leghorn (note at 0:45)
https://vimeo.com/68416931

24.dannyno | 11/04/2017

Note 3 again: since MES is misquoting Lord Byron (although Byron did say, in an 1823 letter, "Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen."), might he not also be misquoting Dolly Parton? Maybe he meant someone else entirely. Like Emmylou Harris, who has a vaguely relevant quote too: "Patriotism can be good or bad. Knee-jerk patriotism can be very bad. I'm patriotic almost to the point of self-consciousness, but I love my country the way I love a friend or a child who I would correct if she was going the wrong way." ["What I've Learned," Esquire, June 2004]. But of course it might be anyone, or complete misdirection.

25.Mark | 10/02/2018

This song is purely about the fact that the nationalistic thug has stolen Mark's right to be proud of his nation, making it a left/right choice. It is a massive dig at the fascists who chose not to be educated. Hence the tree booking the flowing river. Apart from the Byron quote eading anything more into the references is puerile. They are purely juxtapositions. But then again I may be a cunt!

Thank you, Alan. It seems you cannot archive videos on the Wayback Machine so I do not link to them (I only discovered Wayback this year, and thus my site is becoming a graveyard for links).

27.Rema999 | 20/04/2018

Concerning the car rental verse: it’s quite interesting and somewhat funny considering that MES (as - if I remember correctly - explained in Renegade) never got a driving license and was not keen on riding - let alone driving - cars, due to a car accident he was involved in during the early days of the band.

Also, I always thought the song is about repressed or inexpressed potential, on how society’s rules and mundane tasks can cripple or obstacle the free flowing of ideas.
But that’s just an interpretation!

28.dannyno | 28/04/2018

Comment #27.

This is what MES says in Renegade:

I remember in those days you used to get idiots driving around having had about twenty pints of bitter. Crashing into walls and knocking people over. But if you’re on a bike you’ve got to be very careful about stuff like that. You don’t have the protection of the car. I still don’t like car drivers. Never learned to drive. I tried to but I can’t, don’t like it. I can drive an American car, passed my test there. But not here.

Once you’ve driven a bike every day, like I used to when I worked on the docks – in the rush hour, when Manchester was ten times busier than it is now, when you used to have to drive down the middle of the road – it’s hard to adapt. If I get in a van or a car I sit in the back. Still don’t trust them. I’ll sit in the front seat if it’s necessary but I don’t like it. I don’t like that idea that certain drivers have that just because you’ve got a car you can go anywhere, with the wind in your hair. It’s bollocks. As soon as you buy a car you’re on the books. You can’t go anywhere without somebody knowing about it.

No mention of a car accident.

29.dannyno | 11/06/2018

In October/November 2000, MES wrote two or three columns for shortlived website www.indieplanet.com, under the title Highsmith Teeth.

There are echos of Mountain Energei in MES's second Highsmith Teeth piece, which contains a 'poem' based on some powerful storms. There's a line in there about hitting the bow of a boat on a tree, and also "energei" is mentioned, with a note that this refers to Norweb Energei, the local power company (In fact, it was "Norweb Energi").

Rema999--I think your interpretation is square on the mark, at least on one level I think that's exactly what the song is getting at.

32.Charlie Hughes | 24/12/2018

The word lid is slang for friend, similar to mate.I thought its usage was common,but probably it could be because I come from Liverpool.

33.dannyno | 03/01/2019

Comment #32. Not common outside of scouse! Good observation, but I don't think it's a usage that MES would employ - despite his reputation, which is based on just a handful of examples, he doesn't really use much local slang even from Manchester in his lyrics - and it doesn't really seem to fit in context.

Yeah I've never heard "Lid," I hope you're right because I feel like the idea is just "income" and then a filler word

So, if you ask me, it does fit in context, Dan--but I am not convinced it's right...

35.dannyno | 19/01/2019

Well, are Blairstowe and Partridge supposed to be Scouse bank managers/mortgage advisers, or something? And not just that, but talking to their Salford (assuming MES to be the narrator of the song, a dangerous assumption) client using Scouse slang?

I think you're right it's a filler word to give the required number of syllables to the line.

Byron said "I love my country ..." well , then MES goes on to say "I hate country (-side, so much)"

40.Rob | 26/05/2019

Always thought that Mountain Energei was an imagined clear bottled drink. With the water flowing down a train covered mountain being depicted on the bottle label. Who know what the properties of the drink were?

41.Rob | 26/05/2019

Mountain not train obviously

42.Rob | 26/05/2019

Tree not train obviously. Time to start drinking again

43.harleyr | 31/05/2019

Found the following this morning in Friedrich Nietsche's "Human, All Too Human". Has a ring of familiarity about it.

156
Once again inspiration. When productive energy has been dammed up for a while and has been hindered in its outflow by an obstacle, there is finally a sudden outpouring, as if a direct inspiration with no previous inner working out, as if a miracle were taking place. This constitutes the well-known illusion which all artists, as we have said, have somewhat too great an interest in preserving. The capital has simply piled up; it did not fall suddenly from heaven. Incidentally, such apparent inspiration also exists elsewhere, for example, in the domain of goodness, virtue, vice.

44.Joe | 28/01/2020

Are you sure it's "You need an income lid" and not "You need an income, lad."

"Lad" would make more sense, especially since later on he says "You need a licence and a logbook, son"

Yeah we've been through this, that's what I had for a while because I thought it made more sense, but it really sounds like "lid." See comments 3-4

46.T.L.B. | 16/04/2020

I think you can also connect Mountain Energei to a theme which often crops up in Fall songs of events going wrong that the hapless protagonist does not deserve and cannot control, like Couldn't Get Ahead, No Bulbs, New Face in Hell, Touch Sensitive. The despaired reaction of "I thought it was free" is a great encapsulation of this.

The first verse appears to be be connected to MES's widely documented financial problems at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 00s when he might literally have had to approach banks to remortgage his house, and got knock backs because his self-employed income was precarious and unpredictable. Mr Blairstowe and Mr Partridge might have been versions of two out of several mortgage advisors who refused him help at the time.

"Income lid" sounds like a half remembered version of something a mortgage advisor might use as a reason for not supporting an application on the basis that an underground band leader's self-employed income is not fixed, there could be windfalls and long fallow periods, and band expenses are not finite either, with no "lid" on them, although I appreciate the line talks about income rather than expenses.

MES would have been entirely liable for band expenses at that time, he didn't appear to have a manager or a record company providing funds in between Artful and Castle/Slogan (I think the arrangement with Action would have been ad hoc without much of an advance provided) and the band itself was no longer a financial partnership with liability shared with Steve Hanley.

There is a deliberate pun on "lad" as well though, which links with "son" in the car rental verse.

Incidentally, I've just noticed that the mammoth live version from the LA Knitting Factory 2016 on YouTube has another verse at around 8 minutes in about going to the doctor's which I can't decipher.